Jenson Button

“When it comes to my racing career I’m very driven and very selfish. People who are around me at races will know that I’m a different person here (at the circuit) than in my personal life. I completely blank people at races. I need to be focused. I’m rude.” - Jenson Button, 2006.

Jenson Button is a British Formula One racing driver who currently drives for the new Brawn GP team. He is the current F1 champion.

MAGNETISM

With great speed, comes great big piles of cash and Jenson Button surely can’t be short of a few pennies having been plying his trade in the most glamourous of motor competitions, Formula One, since 2000. His blonde hair, dashing good looks, playboy lifestyle and the wonga that comes with it means Jenson is one hell of a catch for any lady. He currently resides in the tax-haven of Monaco when not jetting round the world on the Grand Prix tour, and has his current squeeze, the super-hot model, Jessica Michibata cheering him on from the pit-lane.

Being described as untameable by previous conquests hasn’t stopped Jenson dating a string of high-class beauties in the past including socialite/model Florence Brudenell-Bruce and Fame Academy reject Louise Griffiths, whom Jenson was engaged to for two years before breaking it off, three months before the wedding, in 2005.

SUCCESS

Jenson Button has always displayed signs of untapped potential, but initially struggled to make the impact on Formula One that young upstart Lewis Hamilton did in his first two seasons. Things turned the corner for veteran Button, who started his F1 career at Williams in 2000, with his first victory coming in 2006 at Hungary, then winning the first race of the 2009 season with the newly created Brawn GP team in the Australian Grand Prix.

After a rocky journey towards the end of the 2009 season, Brawn and Button finally claimed the drivers' championship in the penultimate race of the season at the Brazilian Grand Prix. With a winning pedigree, the right car, and a proven track record in karting, Formula Ford and Formula Three behind him Button, at 29, may have just reached his racing peak.

Jenson Button Biography

Jenson Button was born on January 19th, 1980, in Frome, Somerset, and his father John Button was a famous Rallycross driver in the 1970s.

jenson button's early promise

Jenson Button began go-karting at the tender of eight, and told his teachers at Selwood Middle School that one day he wanted to be the Formula One world champion. In 1991, aged eleven, Jenson competed in the British Cadet Kart Championship, winning all 34 races and landing the title. He carried on competing in the karting field, winning the European Super A Championship in 1997, before winning the Ayrton Senna Memorial Cup enabling the 18 year to break into Formula Ford in 1998.

jenson button races in formula ford and formula three

Driving for the Haywood Racing team, Jenson Button won the title in his debut Formula Ford season with nine race wins, and landed him the title of McLaren Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the year, which came with the coveted prize of a trial in a McLaren Formula One car due at the end of the 1999 season. Button drove for the Promatecme team in the 1999 Formula Three championship, finishing the year as top rookie driver with three wins, earning him a Formula One trial with the Prost and Williams teams alongside his McLaren test.

jenson button breaks into formula one

Jenson Button joined the Formula One circus driving for the Williams team in 2000, in which he finished eighth overall in the driving championship with his best placing being 4th in the Belgian Grand Prix. The next two seasons would prove frustrating for Button; he struggled with an underdeveloped car at Benetton in 2001, finishing seventeenth in the championship, and when Benetton became Renault F1 in 2002, despite finishing seventh that year’s drivers championship, Button’s driving seat was handed over to Fernando Alonso by the Renault head honcho Flavio Briatore.

from BAR to honda to brawn

Jenson Button signed for the BAR racing team in early 2003 alongside Jacques Villeneuve, and had a few fairly successful seasons, with his first pole at San Marino and finishing an unprecedented third, overall, in the driver’s championship in 2004. Williams looked to negotiate a return for Jenson to their stable in the latter parts of the year and announced a two-year deal had been inked. BAR disputed the deal, contesting that Button was contracted to them, and the FIA upheld the decision, keeping Button at BAR for the 2005 season.

The 2005 season would prove hit and miss with Button struggling to make an impression. He scored his first championship points halfway through the season, and a third place in Germany would prove to be the highlight of a frustrating year. Despite being contracted to move to Williams the following season, Button got cold feet after BMW announced they would no longer be supplying the British team’s engines, so he signed for BAR for another season. BAR were bought out by their engine suppliers and became Honda F1 Racing Team for the 2006 season, which would see Button land his first ever Grand Prix victory in the Hungarian GP, his 113th Formula One race. Button ended the season with a flourish, scoring 35 points from six races, more than any other driver, which meant he ended the driver’s championship in sixth place. Despite another difficult year in 2007 at Honda, which the driver himself described as a “total disaster”, Button committed himself to the team for the 2008 season, which would see him scoring points only once the whole season.

At the end of the 2008 season, Honda announced they would be quitting F1 following financial difficulties, leaving Button’s place on the Grand Prix circuit in jeopardy. However, Ross Brawn, former Honda Team Principal, announced he would be buying out the struggling team and Brawn GP was born in time for the 2009 season. In pre-season testing, the Brawn cars, driven by Button and Reubens Barrichello, were outpacing all competitors and were tipped as the dark horse competitors for the season, a prediction that proved to be spot on when the team scored a one-two in the opening race of the F1 season in Australia.

jenson button becomes f1 champion

With Jenson finally behind the wheel of a competitive car, he went on to storm to six victories in the opening seven races in the 2009 Formula 1 season, picking up maximum points at the Australian, Malaysian and Bahrain Grand Prixs before completing a quadruple of wins with victory in Barcelona on May 10. He then went on to add wins in Monaco and Turkey, equalling the record number of wins at the beginning of an F1 season achieved by Michael Schumacher and Jim Clark.

In the penultimate race of the season at Interlagos, Button sealed the drivers' championship with a magnificent fifth place finish after coming from 14th on the grid at the start of the race.